みなさん、こんにちは！I hope you guys have been enjoying this series so far, although, we still have a long way to go. I might have to do more than one of these a week, if we truly want to build up some learning steam, but we will see what my timetable allows. However, that aside, this week, we will focus on learning the K-Column of the Hiragana chart!

Today’s lesson is all about the K-Column from the hiragana chart. This is just a “k” sound, plus the vowel sounds you learned last week! That means, this week we will be learning all about “ka, ki, ku, ke, & ko” or 「か、き、く、け、＆こ」. You don’t have to worry about any weird exceptions from this column either, so it will be a nice and easy learning week.

か

「か」 is the first part of the K-Column that we will learn together. 「か」 is pronounced like “kah” sound a crow makes, and is simply a combination of the “k” sound and the 「あ」 kana we learned last week. It is also the ending sound of my name, “Jessica”. This is a relatively easy kana to remember, but picture a crow flying towards a cliff to make it a little easier to remember when you see this kana.

き

「き」is the second part of this column that we will learn today. 「き」is pronounced “key”, just like a key you would use unlock something. Coincidentally enough, this kana also looks like a key, so it is very easy to remember. This kana combines the “k” sound and the 「い」 kana we learned last week.

く

「く」is the third part of the K-Column that we will learn today. 「く」is pronounced “koo”, just like the sounds a coo-coo bird makes. This kana combines the “k” sound and the 「う」sound we learned last week. To remember this kana, simply picture a coo-coo birds’ beak!

け

「け」is the fourth part of the K-Column that we are learning today. 「け」is pronounced “keh” like the beginning of the word, “keg”. This kana combines the “k” sound and the 「え」sound we learned last week. A simple way to remember this kana is to picture two kendo fighters, dueling it out, as seen below.

こ

「こ」is the fifth and final part of the K-Column that we will learn today. 「こ」is pronounced like “co” from Coca-Cola, or the beginning of the word, “koala”. This kana combines the “k” sound and the 「お」sound we learned last week. A simple way to remember this final kana is to picture a cute koala hanging from a tree. (You’ll focus on it’s cute legs clutching the tree trunk.)

Homework

Yes, there is homework this week too! You want to truly learn this stuff, right? If so, then buckle down and get to work. It’s not too difficult, and can even be fun!

1. First, I want you to visit this website to do some Drag n’ Drop Hiragana. Focus only on the 10 kana you know, which are the K-Column kana and the vowels. You don’t have to worry about timing yourself either, you just want to be able to find the hiragana you’ve learned, and know which of those five correspond with their correct romaji sounds. (You’ll focus on the last two row on the right.) If you do want to time yourself before doing the second piece of homework, then aim for all ten hiragana within 30 seconds. I think that should be a worthwhile challenge, don’t you? 😉

2. Secondly, I want you to download this pdf worksheet (print it out too, if you’d like), and practice writing (or typing) in the corresponding romaji for the kana shown. This time, it will be kana from both of the columns you have learned so far, so it should be a little more difficult, and twice as much fun!

3. Your final piece of homework, is also an optional one. This piece of homework is perfect for anyone who wishes to learn how to write in Japanese while learning how to read and speak it as well. Simply download this pdf and print it out, if you haven’t already. Only practice sheet numbers one and two.

That should cover everything in the K-Column lesson today! I hope you were able to follow along with what I covered well enough, and if you have any questions at all concerning the lesson material, I invite you to leave a comment below! I will answer you questions as soon as I am able. Until next time, good luck with your studies, and I look forward to seeing you next week for the next installment of this Learning Hiragana series. Also, I wanted to quickly say “Happy Birthday Masaru” to my friend Masaru. Click the Happy Birthday text to go to that special blog post. Thanks again everyone! 😀

がんばって！
Jessica